


The Gift

by Shaymed



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 03:33:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14926322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaymed/pseuds/Shaymed
Summary: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOULE!!! <3





	The Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Soule](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soule/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOULE!!! <3

“Faster!” the Quel’dorei shouted, urgently pulling his wife’s hand in the black night.

She gasped and adjusted the little bundle within the papoose wrapped around her. “We’ve been running for days. How much longer—”

“Until we’re safe.”

“Will we ever be?” she demanded, tearing her hand from his. “Oni, we can’t run forever.”

He took her hand and pulled her back into a run, splashing through a small stream. “Neither can they, Kora. So we just have to outlast them.” A dart coated in tranquilizing poison slipped silently through the air and pierced into Oni’s neck. “Run,” he grunted, then rolled down the embankment.

Kora pushed herself with renewed urgency into the trees. Arrows embedded in the trunks behind her and she gasped. Tears dripped from her eyes, blurring her sight. _Oni, my love. I can’t do it. Not without you. I’m not strong enough._ She stopped and knelt beside a gnarled tree. Hands shaking and heart shattered, she removed the papoose and looked in at her child. His wide, green eyes blinked up at her as his lips curved to a frown foretelling of a cry. Kora set the little burlap lynx teething toy, laced with gentle sleeping herbs, to his lips. He sucked for a moment before his eyes slowly closed. Breath catching in her throat, she set him among the tall grass and the leaves.

“Light hear my plea, if you cannot save me, save my baby. Save my Vyaaris.” She kissed his forehead and pushed to her feet, running the opposite direction from where the little bundle was hidden.

The high elf ran until the sun peeked from behind the horizon. Then, in the orange light of the morning, the Amani took aim and shot her in the spine with a long, hard arrow. The troll grunted, glad to be done with the chase. He strolled casually over and ripped the arrow from Kora’s back. She cried out, and with the little energy left within her, she pulled herself along through the grass, gasping against the pain. The Amani laughed and gripped her wrists and ankles, tying them together, then slipping a pole through so he and a comrade could carry her away.

Her vision blurred, but she managed to make out the figure of her husband, bound to another pole being carried by two more trolls. Blood slowly seeped from the wound in her back, dripping to the ground below. Kora’s final thought as the Light took her was of her son, Vyaaris, hidden away in the forest at the edge of Hillsbrad Foothills.

~ * ~

The Kaldorei squinted up the river, scanning through the clear ripples for a school of fish. “Ha!” She took her net and jogged along the bank to the gently splashing group of sagefish.

At first, she couldn’t be sure of the tiny hiccup she heard as she tossed her net over the school. The night elf stopped, her head cocked to one side and a long ear perked to listen. Little bursting pouts came from the trees behind her, then the softest of cries. She ran to the sound and gasped to find a Quel’dorei baby crawling through the tall grass and whimpering up at a wide tree. The infant was wrapped in his little cloth, and nothing else. He frowned up at her and cried harder when she lifted him into her arms.

The woman searched the area, shushing the screaming child. After nearly an hour, she’d still found no sign of his parents, and the baby was growing more distressed. She closed her eyes and sighed into the soft hair attop his head.

“I will take care of you, if you’ll let me.” She then began to hum a gentle lullaby and the child’s cries quieted. “I bet you’re hungry, hmm? How does some fresh goat’s milk sound?” She carried him back to the stream and shook the fish from her net, then slung it over her shoulder.

When they reached the farm, the baby was humming his cries softly up at her, his wide eyes fixed on her purple skin. She was filling a water skin with milk when the back door opened and a tall night elf stopped to stare at her.

“What on Azeroth have you got there, Runi?”

Her smile lit the room, causing him to relax and close the door behind him.

“A baby Quel’dorei.”

“Where are its parents?” He stared down at the little baby, which stared back up at him. “It smells.”

“ _Tsk_. Just needs a new nappie. Can you get me an old shirt?”

He returned with the article and stood to stare at his beaming wife. “Runi…the parents?”

“Oh! No sign of them. I searched, but there was nobody.” She laid the infant on the table and set about changing his cloth. “A boy! I always wanted a boy, Kinalo. Maybe he was sent to me as a gift?”

He rolled his eyes, but smiled as she laughed and nuzzled the baby. “He can be your gift until his parents come get him, yeah?”

Runi grinned, tears brimming in her eyes. “You don’t mind? Really?”

“Really.” He wrapped his arms around her and looked down at the pink baby. “What do we call him until then?”

Runi smiled up at him.

“Oh. Still on that name?”

She nodded. Her smile turned to the boy in her arms and she brushed her hand over his blond hair. “Grimory. My precious blessing from Elune.”


End file.
